Improving Email Marketing ROI in 2015 Depends on Data

When it comes time to increase your email marketing ROI in the coming year, it’s all about that data.

According to research from The Relevancy Group and Liveclicker, Exploring the Benefits of Real Time Email, the top priorities among mid-market and enterprise marketers for improving email marketing ROI in 2015 are all tied to data.

Here are the top five email marketing priorities for marketers in 2015:

1. Increased Use of Analytics

In order to optimize their brand communications, marketers’ top 2015 email marketing priority is increasing their use of analytics. Overall, 46% of enterprise and 39% of mid-market respondents to this survey ranked a greater use of analytics as most important in the coming year.

2. Improved Segmentation and Targeting

Enterprise marketers (40%) and mid-market marketers (36%) both rank improving segmentation and targeting as important making it the second highest priority for increasing email marketing ROI next year.

3. Centralized and More Actionable Customer Data

Organizing customer data so marketers can actually use it ranked as the third most important priority to increase email marketing ROI in 2015 (33% of enterprise marketers and 29% of mid-market marketers).

4. Increased and Better Use of Real-Time Data

Data will be important to marketers in 2015, but real-time data is even more important. Overall 32% of enterprise marketers and 27% of mid-market marketers ranked the utilization of real-time data as a top priority to increase marketing ROI in 2015.

5. Increased Relevancy of Direct Communications Through the Use of Dynamic Content

Dynamic content is the content in email messages (as well as on websites, landing pages, online forms, and so on) that changes based on the person viewing it so each person sees the most relevant content to him or her. In total, 31% of enterprise marketers and 29% of mid-market marketers ranked dynamic content as a top email marketing priority to increase ROI in the coming year.

Now, pretend it’s five years earlier. What do you think the top email marketing priorities were for marketers in 2005? Improved segmentation and targeting, better use of analytics, and centralizing customer data and making it more actionable were almost certainly on everyone’s priority lists back then.

It’s interesting to see how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Yes, marketing priorities evolve as new tactics to collect and use data debut, but the marketing fundamentals stay fairly consistent, don’t they?

Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.

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